Food Waste

[L Gilbert]

The anthropologist, Timothy Jones, performed a study in the U.S. about how much food people waste there.

http://www.communitycompost.org/info/usafood.pdf

Are we that much different in Canada?

Our personal waste is almost totally plastic wrapping. Paper, cans, etc. are recycled. Food scraps; bones, peelings, etc.; go to the dogs or the chickens. I heard the fellow on CBC this morning and it was quite interesting.

Most people have lost respect for food, in his opinion. Farmers and their families have a respect for food. People in cities particularly have lost respect because thethoughts behind where their food comes from, the experience of taking the time to watch it grow, etc. aren't in our heads.

 

[RomSpaceKnight]

I toss enough overripe fruit, stale bread and limp veggies away every week to feed a third world family. I do feel bad about it, honest.

 

[Sal]

OMG. I am so guilty of food wastage that I sometimes feel criminal. It is in fact criminal. And I keep saying I am going to make adjustments and I truly intend to do so. But I throw a lot away.

My motto... ... If in doubt, throw it out. I doubt a lot.

 

[lone wolf]

The closer to reality one is, the more peanut butter they'll scrape from the jar.

Woof!

 

[shadowshiv]

OMG. I am so guilty of food wastage that I sometimes feel criminal. It is in fact criminal. And I keep saying I am going to make adjustments and I truly intend to do so. But I throw a lot away.

My motto... ... If in doubt, throw it out. I doubt a lot.

It isn't worth getting ill by eating something just because you feel guilty about having to throw it away. So you shouldn't feel guilty, Sal.

 

[Sal]

The closer to reality one is, the more peanut butter they'll scrape from the jar.

Woof!

Eeeeeeew Woofy, if you're going to make me eat peanut butter we are gonna fight... That's just cruel.

It isn't worth getting ill by eating something just because you feel guilty about having to throw it away. So you shouldn't feel guilty, Sal.

You are right Shadow, it isn't worth getting ill because we feel guilty about throwing it out. The problem develops when there is food in the fridge which is perfectly good and nutritious left-overs and we by-pass them because we fancy something else. Thus we make other food or go out to eat.

I am guilty of that. Frequently. I have a 48 hour left-over rule for most foods. I also have a "one reheat" policy. Nothing wrong with that if I would just eat the damn left-overs instead of pleasing my palette.

So I am one of the guilty. Can't get around it.

Imp did a post in another forum on what the average family around the world eats for a week... I will ask her to post it here. It should make everyone feel like they should examine their food consumption. And take responsibility for their food waste.

 

[Gitaboo Radley]

Guilty as charged too. We probably aren't that much different in Canada with respect to wasting food.

The biggest source of wasting food for me is overbuying. You would think that living in a remote area would make one more resourceful, but I find it can be conducive to wasting food. Often I am not sure when I will be back to the city to replenish supplies so I end up overbuying vegetables and produce - it might be two or three weeks before I get back to town. I have all these recipe ideas while I am in the grocery store, so I purchase accordingly. Then a few of my culinary ideas fall by the wayside or by the time I get to trying that new recipe, I open the fridge and my lettuce crisper is starting to resemble a petrie dish.

Years ago when I was in the U.K., I sort of liked how many of the folk I knew went to the market regularly and kept less in their fridges. That isn't possible for many rural Canadian folks though. And I wouldn't trade living in the mountains for that convenience. I would probably waste less food if I was a little more organised with meal planning; doubtful that will happen though...maybe without this computer, it might ...hehe.

 

[L Gilbert]

It isn't worth getting ill by eating something just because you feel guilty about having to throw it away. So you shouldn't feel guilty, Sal.

Of course not, but then one could be a little more careful about not buying so much or leaving it around long enough to go bad. It is preventable, isn't it? We can quite a bit also, so we aren't out of fruit and veggies throughout the winter. It isn't fresh but then it lasts a lot longer than fresh. It might make a diff also if people weren't so ignorant and paranoid about irradiating their food.

 

[gerryh]

I pay for it.....if I wanna throw it away....my choice...and no, I don't feel guilty.

 

[talloola]

I pay for it.....if I wanna throw it away....my choice...and no, I don't feel guilty.

Very pathetic

 

[mt_pockets1000]

I try to buy only what I need. It doesn't work all the time. Just threw out a a spoiled green pepper this evening. Killed me.

 

[talloola]

I compost my food waste,(except meat), I guess that's still throwing it out, but, at least it comes back
to me through my vegetable garden in the summer.

What about that new 'stuff' they advertise that you can put your vegetables in and they
stay fresh for a very long time, anybody know anything about that product?
Some sort of plastic bag which absorbs all the gases from the food.

 

[karrie]

I compost my food waste,(except meat), I guess that's still throwing it out, but, at least it comes back
to me through my vegetable garden in the summer.

What about that new 'stuff' they advertise that you can put your vegetables in and they
stay fresh for a very long time, anybody know anything about that product?
Some sort of plastic bag which absorbs all the gases from the food.

I'd rather throw away half of my veggies, biological matter, than add yet another plastic product to my expenditures and to the landfill.

 

[Walter]

Some sort of plastic bag which absorbs all the gases from the food.

Wish there was something to absorb the gases from my dog.

 

[karrie]

Wish there was something to absorb the gases from my dog.

There is, it's called taxidermy.

And that meets karrie's evil posting quota for the day. lol.

 

[#juan]

Restaurants are probably the best demonstration of food waste around. I was having dinner with friends when one of the women discovered that her very expensive engagement ring was missing. The first thought was that it went out with the dishes. If it had, it would have been scrapped off into the garbage. One look at the garbage convinced everyone that it wasn't worth climbing into the dumpster. Imagine a small swimming pool filled with a liquid mixture of partially eaten steaks and chops, and fish and peas and carrots and every other kind of food you could think of. All of it headed for the landfill.
The ring was in the pant cuff of her fiance.

 

[karrie]

Have you ever seen the recycling programs which use the food for pig feed? They take all the restaurant scraps, liquify it all, and process it into pellet form.

 

[gerryh]

Very pathetic

why...... because it doesn't fit with your "feel good" "waste not want not" mentality?

 

[#juan]

Have you ever seen the recycling programs which use the food for pig feed? They take all the restaurant scraps, liquify it all, and process it into pellet form.

I haven't seen this but it sounds like a great idea. I don't know what all that rotten food turns into in the landfill.

 

[gerryh]

I haven't seen this but it sounds like a great idea. I don't know what all that rotten food turns into in the landfill.

Yup...methane gas that can be recovered and used.